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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27372814">Unalone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Uninspired/pseuds/The_Uninspired'>The_Uninspired</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Lady, aka trans (clone) rights [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Gen, Gender Identity, Gender Issues, Genderqueer, Neopronouns, No Beta We Die Like B1s, Non-Binary Gender(s), Non-binary character, Questioning, Sibling Bonding, Team Bonding, Trans Clones, Trans Female Character, Transgender, just the least subtle one lol, meet the queer squad, turns out lady isn't the only gender rebel in the 180th</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:33:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>612</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27372814</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Uninspired/pseuds/The_Uninspired</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lady had never even realized how lonely she was until she wasn’t anymore.</p><p>-or-</p>
<p>After General Fern’s battalion-wide declaration of support for her troops’ freedom of gender expression, Lady discovers that she's not the only clone in the 180th who isn't exactly a brother.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Clone Trooper Character(s) &amp; Original Clone Trooper Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Lady, aka trans (clone) rights [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1997965</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Unalone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Now that this is a series I've decided to start tagging my OC characters. Funnily enough, the original fic Defective featured all OCs because I hadn't yet actually watched CW and wasn't comfortable using any canon characters I wasn't super familiar with. But I've spent the last month power-marathoning CW and probably won't be able to resist involving some canon charas now at some point or another. Although I'm a sucker, and I'm starting to really to take a shine to my OC battalion 😉</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was nice to know she wasn’t alone.</p><p>It was…</p><p>It was <em>so nice</em>.</p><p>It was a little warm glow in her stomach, soothing her, filling her with light.</p><p>Lady had never even realized how lonely she was until she wasn’t anymore.</p><p>Even if there were just four of them in the 180th (four <em>so far</em>, as the General liked to say), Lady had never felt so much a part of something.</p><p>There were Umami and Thunderclap, who the General had called <em>questioning</em>- a word that Lady found apt. Both were still working through all the questions Lady had answered for herself at the start of the war, and it made her feel special when either of the two shinies came around asking her for advice. Like she was finally the big sister, rather than the little one.</p><p>Then there was Captain Jab. Jab was a woman, just like Lady was, which was a different kind of thrill. She’d never even spoken to Jab before the General’s big announcement, and they’d only spoken a handful of times since, but Lady could feel the rope binding them together now, as if they were batchers who’d simply lost track of each other. Lady knew that Jab felt the same way, as the captain would now seek Lady out in the field when her own close brothers were missing or otherwise occupied.</p><p>Unlike Lady, Jab had taken Fern up on the offer of a separate sleeping arrangement, and shared a small converted storage bay with Umami. The makeshift bunkroom had become something of an unofficial gathering space, and though neither slept there Lady and Thunderclap found themselves there often enough, sitting around on the extra cot Fern had requisitioned so that no one would have to be turned away should they decide to move in unexpectedly.</p><p>It was a a bit strange to spend so much time around the captain, and it must be even stranger for the shinies, but Lady found Jab to be not so different from any other brother- <em>sibling</em>, that’s what they were calling it now, though Lady struggled sometimes to remember. She was aggressive and impulsive and blunt with her intentions, which had at first taken Lady aback. It was only later, during one of the meandering after-hours conversations the four of them were getting into more and more frequently, that Lady realized it was because she associated none of those traits with <em>femininity</em>, because none of them were traits she associated with the General. It should come as no surprise that sisters would be as diverse as brothers, but it felt a bit like a surprise all the same!</p><p>Another surprise Lady had not expected was the discovery that she had not just brothers and sisters, but other things besides. For though Thunderclap still called himself a brother, Umami had taken to calling emself a sibling. E’d always known e wasn’t a brother, but it wasn’t until General Fern’s announcement that e had realized there were available alternatives. Umami had gasped audibly mid-speech when the General mentioned, off-handedly, a <em>non-binary</em> sibling of her own, and all but announced emself then and there in eir excited and baffled (and completely unprofessional, not that anyone was going to stop em) interrogation of that little detail.</p><p>It was all just so…</p><p>Exciting.</p><p>Strange.</p><p>Thrilling.</p><p>And <em>warm</em>, that’s what it was.</p><p>As Lady sat back on the spare cot with her shoulder bumped up against Thunderclap’s, listening to Umami spin stories that made the last battle sound far more exciting and heroic than Lady knew it had been, watching Jab scratch out her paperwork and grumble about her captain’s duties…</p><p>Lady felt warm.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fancy fact I learned in researching this fic about e/em pronouns for people like me who are neopronoun noobs: it's not clear if he 'invented' them, but their modern use apparently originates in a 1990 software manual The Joy of TeX (oh god college typesetting flashbacks oh jeez) in which the author used them to avoid gendering his included examples. They were then popularized online by being built into a 1990s chat program. Isn't that cool? I like that they have such a techy history. They seemed like a good choice to pick for a sci-fi character.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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